Dice the shrimp. Peel if needed. Dicing the shrimp prevents the filling to become too stringy in the food processor
Grab your food processor and throw in the garlic and onions. Blitz them up until they’re minced. Add the carrots and give it a few pulses. Add the cabbage (or whatever veggies you have). Do not over-process the ingredients into mush. You want to have some variety in the texture.
Add the ground pork, diced shrimp, black pepper, salt, and fish sauce. Blend it all in the food processor. The fish sauce makes a HUGE difference; if you can, please try not to skip this ingredient. It’s very much worth it!
Next, we will wrap this filling up! At this point you should begin separating the wrappers. If you have the Menlo brand, you can choose to cut them into quarters for smaller wrappers.
Take 1 wrapper and place it on a flat surface, oriented to you as a diamond shape. Take ~2 tbsp of filling and lay it out in the shape of a log horizontally across the wrapper, leaving about 1½ inches from the side corners. Start with a conservative amount of filling. If you over stuff, the roll might open up during frying. Also, the thicker your roll, the longer you will have to fry
Fold the bottom part of the wrapper over the filling, tucking it against the filling so that it’s tight and secure. Fold the 2 side corners toward the middle of the wrapped filling, and then continue rolling upwards until those newly folded corners are rolled up. **Keep the wrap tight.
Dab your fingers in a small bowl of water and apply it to the edge of the wrap (usually the last, unrolled corner) to secure the wrap. The wet edge serves as a seal for the lumpia. Roll the rest of the way up, letting the wrapper stick to itself. Place on a plate with the sealed edge down to assist in keeping it sealed.
Repeat steps 5→7 until you have used up all of your wrappers or filling.
(OPTIONAL but recommended) Put your lumpia in the freezer to harden. You can fry lumpia direct from frozen. Doing so will help the lumpia keeps its shape while frying.
Deep fry the lumpias at 350º – 375º F. If you don’t have a deep fryer, you can fill a saucepan with oil deep enough to submerge the lumpia. If you don’t have a thermometer, drop a small piece of wrapper into the oil. If it starts to bubble and float, the oil is ready for frying.
Add only as much lumpia as will fit into the pan at a time. Fry for 4 minutes or until golden brown.
Once the lumpia is ready, place them on a paper towel-lined bowl or plate to drain them of excess oil. Fry all the lumpia you wish
Serve the lumpia hot and fresh with your choice of dipping sauce. Sweet chili sauce is the traditional choice.